I work in a Title I school district. We scored very low on the Smarter Balanced assessment last year. Our sixth grade students came into middle school, the grade that tested the lowest on the Smarter Balanced in the district. As a teacher, I was faced with the reality that many of my students struggled with basic reading, basic comprehension, and direction following. I needed to find a way to help my students succeed, not just to assist them in my class, but to help them succeed in the future. While we tried more typing drills, working with www.typing.com more consistently, or having students work with Dr. Seuss passages, it wasn’t enough to help our students. I want to ensure we’re always using Web 2.0 tools, and engaging websites, classes, and applications.
We then discovered ReadTheory.org. It’s a phenomenal online resource that caters to individual, student-centered learning, providing resources and readings to students that are at their reading level, not based on what grade level the student should be at. To me, this was the most important reason to work with this website. I am not an English or language arts teacher, but I need to be able to adapt my technology-based life skills class to better assist my students.
ReadTheory contains "high-quality, engaging content, designed to help students develop the critical skills outlined by national benchmarks and specified by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) (How it Works, n.d)." The lessons specifically adapts to the students individual ability, and presents them with “a seemingly endless array of skill building exercises” (Online Reading Activities | Read Theory, n.d.). With parents, teachers, and students working together on a clear path, ReadTheory helps students make progress each year and gain college, career and life skills. (How it Works, n.d).
Their progress is tracked by the website, in every activity that the students complete. The program “teaches students to think critically, draw inferences, understand scope and global concepts, find or recall details, and infer the meanings of useful vocabulary words”
(Online Reading Activities | Read Theory, n.d.). ReadTheory is a great asset to my students because it is aligned with the Common Core. There are resources for students from first grade to twelfth grade. Their software will even prepare students for the ACT, SAT and GRE standardized tests. With narrative, documentary, argumentative, comparative and many other writing samples, students are seeing all of the various informational texts they will see throughout their educational careers. They could also see questions on images and pictures, argumentative essays, research pieces, newspaper articles, and more. On a weekly basis, there are printable worksheets that can be provided to students for homework if need be. (Online Reading Activities | Read Theory, n.d.).
Students earn badges when they complete assignments, which is exciting and engaging to them. Because they are reading on the computer, and having to type answers, students in my class aren’t even noticing that they are learning. I am able to track the progress of all of my students on a daily basis, analyze the performance of my classes, and understand what resources I can suggest to a struggling reader. There is even a Pre-Test, and students are tested throughout their activities to display their progress as they move through the software
(Online Reading Activities | Read Theory, n.d.).
ReadTheory has been an excellent asset to my classroom, and I hope that it can be a tool you use in the future to help struggling readers learn in a fun way online. While it may not be yet listed as a truly popular Web 2.0 tool, it is a successful program for my students, who are receiving more literacy assistance while still demonstrating their knowledge and skills for using a computer. While this took is similar to other popular Web 2.0 tools such as readworks.org and newsela, they all provide a way for each individual student to grow no matter where they are in the learning process or how far they ar behind. these tools help with integrating differentiation in the classroom and meeting each student where he/she is.
(Click picture for link to tutorial) (Dr. Suess)
Here is a brief explanation on what read theory is if you need a better explanation on how the program works.
Resources:
Online Reading Activities | Read Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2015, from http://www.readtheory.org/
I work in a Title I school district. We scored very low on the Smarter Balanced assessment last year. Our sixth grade students came into middle school, the grade that tested the lowest on the Smarter Balanced in the district. As a teacher, I was faced with the reality that many of my students struggled with basic reading, basic comprehension, and direction following. I needed to find a way to help my students succeed, not just to assist them in my class, but to help them succeed in the future. While we tried more typing drills, working with www.typing.com more consistently, or having students work with Dr. Seuss passages, it wasn’t enough to help our students. I want to ensure we’re always using Web 2.0 tools, and engaging websites, classes, and applications.
We then discovered ReadTheory.org. It’s a phenomenal online resource that caters to individual, student-centered learning, providing resources and readings to students that are at their reading level, not based on what grade level the student should be at. To me, this was the most important reason to work with this website. I am not an English or language arts teacher, but I need to be able to adapt my technology-based life skills class to better assist my students.
ReadTheory contains "high-quality, engaging content, designed to help students develop the critical skills outlined by national benchmarks and specified by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) (How it Works, n.d)." The lessons specifically adapts to the students individual ability, and presents them with “a seemingly endless array of skill building exercises” (Online Reading Activities | Read Theory, n.d.). With parents, teachers, and students working together on a clear path, ReadTheory helps students make progress each year and gain college, career and life skills. (How it Works, n.d).
Their progress is tracked by the website, in every activity that the students complete. The program “teaches students to think critically, draw inferences, understand scope and global concepts, find or recall details, and infer the meanings of useful vocabulary words”
(Online Reading Activities | Read Theory, n.d.). ReadTheory is a great asset to my students because it is aligned with the Common Core. There are resources for students from first grade to twelfth grade. Their software will even prepare students for the ACT, SAT and GRE standardized tests. With narrative, documentary, argumentative, comparative and many other writing samples, students are seeing all of the various informational texts they will see throughout their educational careers. They could also see questions on images and pictures, argumentative essays, research pieces, newspaper articles, and more. On a weekly basis, there are printable worksheets that can be provided to students for homework if need be. (Online Reading Activities | Read Theory, n.d.).
Students earn badges when they complete assignments, which is exciting and engaging to them. Because they are reading on the computer, and having to type answers, students in my class aren’t even noticing that they are learning. I am able to track the progress of all of my students on a daily basis, analyze the performance of my classes, and understand what resources I can suggest to a struggling reader. There is even a Pre-Test, and students are tested throughout their activities to display their progress as they move through the software
(Online Reading Activities | Read Theory, n.d.).
ReadTheory has been an excellent asset to my classroom, and I hope that it can be a tool you use in the future to help struggling readers learn in a fun way online. While it may not be yet listed as a truly popular Web 2.0 tool, it is a successful program for my students, who are receiving more literacy assistance while still demonstrating their knowledge and skills for using a computer. While this took is similar to other popular Web 2.0 tools such as readworks.org and newsela, they all provide a way for each individual student to grow no matter where they are in the learning process or how far they ar behind. these tools help with integrating differentiation in the classroom and meeting each student where he/she is.
(Click picture for link to tutorial)
Here is a brief explanation on what read theory is if you need a better explanation on how the program works.
Resources:
Online Reading Activities | Read Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2015, from http://www.readtheory.org/
How it works. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://www.readtheoryworkbooks.com/how-it-works/
Dr Suess (n.d.). Blockhouse bay intermediate: Read theory. retrieved from-
http://room19bhbint.weebly.com/read-theory.html